Why all the HIIT????

I know that HIIT is supposedly the best for burning fat and maintaining muscle mass, but why do you think that is? have any of you done any self-test or used guinea pigs (your mates) to discover this? what were your results?

I've done both in the past. IMHO the biggest plus with HIIT is the time taken. I've not personally noticed any muscular atrophy when I do the longer steadier cardio and that was with close to an hour of cycling 1st thing in the morning. I also lost fat fairly effetively with it.

Last year I went with HIIT when I was cutting, still cycling generally going for around 30sec full and 60-90 secs half for a total of 30mins including warm up and cool down. I lost fat very effectively, it was quicker than the steady pace stuff and not quite so tedious on a wk in wk out basis.

Personally I see no harm in mixing the 2 up for a bit of variety as I noticed no real negatives with either other than the time factor, and the outcome was much the same. I think the slightly accelerated fat loss with HIIT was partly due to nailing my diet and supp regimen at the time too.

My only concern with HIIT is with 4 days weights and 3 cardio, meaning no real rest day, whether HIIT all the time on a restricted calorie intake would lead to overtraining?

Agreed - mixing it up is the best option. Personally, I am now leaning towards long-duration cardio while cutting, just because of energy restriction. It takes a lot out of you to do HIIT, and sometimes I fear that if my energy reserves aren't sufficient, I may end up being more catabolic by going through HIIT. With long-duration cardio, it definitely takes longer, but at least it's a safer bet. In the end, employing both is ideal however.

I think mixing it up is a good idea because at the end of the day - BOTH ways are going to give you fat loss whatever way you cut it... [I bloody hope so :D ]

I've never done any HIIT yet however I may give it a shot tonight...So basically same machines - but just going hard and fast for 30ish seconds then slow it down to a steady pace for 60-90seconds and repeat?

#1 revs up metabolism for the preceeding 16-24hrs afetrwards#2 takes less than 30mins to complete for 99.99999% of people#3 is more fun and less monotanus that regular slugdio<read:cardio#4 will build enormous lung capacity and endurance#5 helps you keep a good amount of muscle and is less catabolistic#6 can be tailored to individuals needs/wants more easily than slugdio#7 consumes huge amounts of kcals in tiny spaces of time#8 is hugely challenging, mentally

and the list goes on

slugdio: [thoguh by no means useless is totally and utterly boring]

#1 sends you to sleep when its indoors [stationary cycle etc]#2 the fitter you are the longer it takes to complete your task/reach your goal, you are literally punished for being fit#3 has no ebnifits over HIIT at all, apart from....#4 is useful for active recovery#5 is as mentally stimulating as Ian Duncan Smith#6 uses outdated and incorrect theory to explain fat loss and fat metabolism, e.g = the myth that you must exersize for 20minutes to use up your glycogen stores enabling you to burn fat thereafter. LMAO#7 and the list goes on..rob

If you were to incorporate this method of cardio on the basic machines ( cross-trainer/rower/bike ) how would it look ? lets say for example i use the cross trainer would this be o.k : 1min at highest level ( level 20 ), followed by 4mins midway ( level 10/12 ) and so on for a total of 20mins ?I know that is a long rest period but say for a beginner to this sort of cardio

I mean if I replace my slugdio routine (which is tredmill 15min/bike 10min/rower 5min) with a HIIT routine what would the HIIT routine be?Please suggest me a HIIT routine to replace my slugdio routine.(If you get a chance)Thanks.

HAve a read of Roberts HIIT thread..u'll find all the answers you will probably need with regards to HIIT.

I have been doing HIIT at the basic level(30 sec mhr-2 mins 50% mhr) on the treadmill and on the Heavy bag for a week now and would never go back to slugdio.fitness improves very quickly, and my metabolism has gone completly nutty! I just CANNOT fill up. YIPPPEEEEEEE...burn that fat!

GA, 30secMHR followed by only 60secLHR is way too much for a beginner to HIIT, i cannot hold that pace for long and i have been doing it for years. Thai is more on the money there.

john,

i would say that for the first minute on the treadmill, just warm up with a steep incline and a fast walk. then [apply this to all and any machines, doesn't matter which order you do them in or how many different ones you use]

20-30secMHR followed by 2-3minutes 40-50%MHR, cycle that until you have finished your session. personally i would stick to the rower, or the treadmill, or both. i have used a bike for many years, both indoors and out, and found it to be extremely useful with regards fitness, but one of the worst methods of shifting fat. [fairly important as you are a BBer if i remember] good luck.rob

Call the above ^^^ one rep of HIIT...How many HIIT reps would I have to do to equal my normal cardio (as in previous post)?Thats the question I have been trying to get at ^^^(we'll get there in the end. LOL)

J.O.M- from what i have read from roberts threads i believe that HIIT is performed for about 20 minutes..once you can do the basic 30sec mhr 2/3 min 40-50% mhr for 20 mins, then all you do is increase the MHR time and decrease the 40/50 % MHR.

john, basically its as long as you can, normally people don't manage more than about 10/11minutes when they start off.. so you might want to add some slugdio throughout the week, not much though, until you can manage 20minutes.

thai, as you progress, you up the duration of MHR **AND** THE LOWER HEART RATE, you can decrease it a bit, but never to much as you will seriously burn out.

so afetr a couple of months you might work up to something like:

20secMHR/2minLHR, then25secMHR/2minLHR, then30secMHR/3minLHR, then40secMHR/3minLHR, thenetc etc until you get to1minMHR/4minLHR [my current best @ this intensity is 11min]

basically cycl it until you reach 20minutes, then up your intensity, or total duration, wouldn't go higher than 25-30min though.rob